Jeopardy Ain't Just A Game Show
by ProfessorCactustheThird
Summary: Episode tag to 2.15, where Sylvester gets into Jeopardy and Toby and Happy take it upon themselves to educate him, only to learn a few things about themselves in the process...


_Hey guys, I know I haven't updated Valhalla in a long time and that's totally my bad- my laptop broke and I'm only getting it back form repairs sometime next week ): This is a new fic I just typed out on my phone and am publishing from the library computer, but all the Valhalla chapters were saved on my laptop so there's no way I can get those out until I get my laptop back... So sorry about that again, but hope you can enjoy my little 2.15 episode tag in the meantime!_

* * *

"Well if it isn't our resident Slumdog Millionaire!" Toby greeted, vaulting over his table to catch up with Sylvester. "How'd it go buddy?"

"Slumdog who?" Sylvester asked blankly, the residual fear of last night's audition not helping his complete lack of pop culture knowledge.

"You're worse than Walt, and I didn't know that was possible." Toby sighed resignedly, ignoring aforementioned genius's offended "Hey!" as he came down from the loft.

Sly fiddled nervously with the hem of his vest. "I have to get better at this soon, or I might as well pull out now."

"Why would you have to-" Toby frowned before he realized what that meant. "You got in?" He questioned excitedly, his voice loud enough to make the girls run over from their respective desks.

"That's great Sylvester, congratulations! I knew you could do it, I'm so proud of you!" Paige, ever the mum, praised him, at which Happy nodded.

"Not bad Sly."

The mathematical prodigy beamed at his friends. "I think they really liked me, they said I was the most interesting participant they'd had in a while, and they definitely... want me..." He trailed off as he saw the others wince slightly. "What's wrong?"

"Even after Walter's whole kaboom of yesterday, you still think 'interesting' is good? It's basically a polite way of saying 'wow, this guy is weird as-'" Toby yelped as Happy and Paige elbowed him sharply on either side to shut him up. "Seriously? Since when did you two start coordinating your attacks?"

"Since you almost made his pass out," Paige hissed, nodding toward Sylvester who was currently paler than was healthy.

"W... weird? What do you mean... what does weird... why would-"

"He means," Happy shot Toby a scathing glare, "that you're not as annoyingly scream-y and unnecessarily emotional as most normals who play this. It's _different_ , not weird, but it'll make for a thankfully calm few minutes of the show."

Sylvester blinked at Happy. "So... It's not that bad? It's just that I won't go around hugging the host? Because God knows what germs he has, and I'm doing this to rename the pediatric ward, not get warded myself and-"

"Nope, it's... not bad," Toby tried as convincingly as he could, not too eager to break a few ribs courtesy of the girls; possibly worse if Happy got a proper hold of him.

"Oh, okay. Okay." Sylvester said, before the full weight of being accepted into the show finally landed on him. "Oh God."

"What's up?" Cabe walked in to see the rest of the team gathered around Sylvester's desk. "How'd it go, kid?"

"I got in," he replied as Cabe walked up to him and patted his back in congratulations.

"I got in." He repeated, more to himself than the others, looking up at the rest of them. "How did I get in? I don't know anything, what will I do? I'm going to get kicked out the minute I walk on stage and it'll be so humiliating and-"

"Hey, hey. It's okay, buddy," Toby was quick to comfort him, seeing the markers of a panic attack starting to form. "Look, why don't you come over for these few nights and I'll show you some of the more popular movies these days."

"You might as well read the Wikipedia pages," Walter spoke up. "It's far more efficient."

"Oh sure, because they don't consider him enough of a nerd as he is," Toby muttered to the head genius before turning back to Sylvester. "So, you in?"

"I'll come too, to make sure he doesn't bore you with too much cheesy crap." Happy added, and the way Toby's eyes shined at that made Paige decide against suggesting it be a team night in.

* * *

The day was thankfully case (and therefore near death experience) free. Walter had allowed the three of them to leave fairly early, and by 7pm they were settled in Toby's surprisingly neat living area, the DVD player loading up The Martian.

"It's one of the most popular movies these days," Toby calmly explained. "And besides you're probably never going to be stuck on Mars so you don't need to worry.

" _Probably_?"

Toby shrugged nonchalantly, "You worked with NASA literally yesterday. With our job description, can you ever really say for sure?"

Sylvester gripped the arm chair a bit more tightly, but watched the movie without much incident nonetheless. He managed to sit through the first Avengers movie as well, though most of it was spent rationalizing to himself how the science wasn't too accurate and chances of it not happening in the real world was a comforting 99.85%.

But the moment Happy put in Speed, Sylvester was out of there faster than the bus itself, muttering about how he'd _like to not be so traumatized that he has walk everywhere due to this movie, thank you very much._

Toby laughed as he watched Sylvester hightail it out of his apartment. "The only way he's going to survive that show is if he wears a comm and we give him the answers," he turned to Happy. "You going as well or...?"

"Might as well watch this since it's already on." Happy shrugged, trying to act indifferent, to act as if she didn't notice how Toby's eyes brightened, his gait noticeably lighter as he walked back to the kitchen to get more chips .

Toby grinned into his cupboard, taking longer than he needed to grab the packet as he tried to get his emotions under control, away from her line of sight. It still wasn't the time to bring up how he wasn't quite sleeping when she came back from Bahari, but _oh_ was their love oak growing, and he knew it would only be a matter of time before it came into full bloom.

He walked back to the couch, and he might be the least mathematically inclined of the Scorpion geniuses, but even he could tell that Happy had subtly scooted closer to where he was sitting; enough that when he sat back down, their knees were just touching. Their hands brushed innumerable times as they reached into the chip bowl that was balanced across their thighs, and those quick touches ignited more in Toby than any past relationship ever had.

Little did he know that Happy was feeling the same way.

Toby ended up watching Happy more than the movie itself; the way she perked up as the action started, and how she would comment about the bomb and the bus, coming up with much better ways to diffuse it, much faster than the characters could. He had never felt this much as home with someone in his life, and he could only hope that she would let him make her his home for the rest of their lives.

The movie ended much faster than either of them wanted it to, and Toby caught his audible sigh of relief just in time when Happy pulled out Battle: Los Angeles from her bag. "I know it's not the best movie around," she grinned cheekily and it took all of Toby's willpower not to ask her if he could kiss here right there and then. "But I really wanted to see how far Sly could be pushed."

"He would have had a stroke on my armchair," Toby kept his voice as steady as he could. "And I know I'm a Harvard M.D. but treating aneurysms in my living room is a bit of a stretch of my expertise."

Happy rolled her eyes as usual, but the up-tilt of the corners of her mouth betrayed her. "Yeah, he'd never watch this in a million years. You don't mind though?"

"Uh, please," Toby stuttered, waving in the direction of the DVD player. As he watched her fiddle with the console and disks, he couldn't help but remember how she had been only too eager to get away from him just a few months back. Something major had changed, and he knew the probably didn't deserve the good in his life, but he accepted it more gratefully than he had ever accepted anything before.

Happy settled back down on the couch, and Toby didn't quite know what to say at the way she angled herself just so that her arm was pressed against his as she leaned back.

* * *

Toby woke up the next morning to the television flashing the brand of his DVD player, a sign that it had been inactive for long enough that it had gone into sleep mode. Cursing himself for staying up so late, mind not quite awake yet to remember the last night, he moved to stretch, only to freeze when he found his movements restricted.

By Happy.

Curled up against him almost desperately, as if she was the only thing that could lull her to sleep.

His mind was pounding with _Oh God she's going to kill me_ and _there's no way I'm getting out of this alive_ , intermixed with marveling at how beautiful and peaceful she looked. It was almost as if the crook of his neck had been made just so that Happy Quinn could rest her head against it. He tried to carefully extricate himself out of her grip but moved his arm too quickly though, and had to bite back an expletive as her head slipped from his shoulder to his chest. She shifted slightly, and he briefly prayed that Paige would be nice enough arrange a decent funeral for him.

"Toby?" His name escaping her lips in a sleep-riddled groan was quite possibly the sweetest sound he had ever heard.

"Uh yeah, hey Hap. I'm so sorry about this, I-" He was cut off as she groaned again, nuzzling further into his chest as she asked him what time it was.

"Uhm, just past seven thirty," he replied, daring to tighten his grip around her waist just the slightest bit. He saw the faintest hint of a smile play across her lips before she moved to sit up, the sudden lack of warmth on his side immediately obvious.

Happy buried her face in her hands, and for a heart-stopping moment Toby though she was going to say how much she regretted this, but she just leaned back against him, head dropping onto his shoulder.

"You, uh, you wanna go home and change before heading in?" Toby asked against every fiber of his being wanting her to stay.

Relief and happiness flooded through him as he felt her shake her head, her hair tickling his neck. "I'd rather sleep in for those thirty minutes. Nobody's going to notice anyway."

"Paige would." He frankly couldn't care less, but Happy was a much more private person, and Paige could get too nosey for her own good.

"I have a spare jacket in my truck," she muttered against his shoulder before sitting up to look at him. "Are you actually trying to kick me out?"

"Wh-what? No, no, no." Toby stammered. "You can stay for as long as you want, I just thought you might want to-"

She cut him off by snuggling into his side again, this time gripping his arm tightly.

Toby didn't quite know what was happening; he hoped it was what he had been praying for for months, but he didn't dare push his luck. "Hap?"

"Last night was the best I'd slept," she said quietly, and Toby was about to make quip about how comfortable his couch was (after all, he had ready told her over an year ago that making wise cracks was his defense mechanism) but she continued. "Since Paige's rooftop camp out."

Toby was stunned into silence and Happy couldn't help but laugh when she looked up and saw the same awestruck expression on his face from the night in mention.

"Toby," she started, shifting even closer and tangling their ankles together as she snaked an arm around his neck. "I've been thinking about this... about us. I... I know I haven't been fair to you, especially the past few months, and I'm sorry. Really, I am."

Toby shook his head, trying to tell her that it was okay, that he somewhat understood, but she motioned for him to let her continue.

"I was scared of what might happen so I tried to self-sabotage and the only thing I succeeded in was hurting you, and-"

"Hap, I'm hardly perfect myself." He managed to get in.

Happy nodded, taking a deep breath and combing her fingers through his short curls. "But then I saw how far out of his comfort zone Sly was willing to go for Megan, even after she has died and I realized how stupid I was being and..." She trailed off, fiddling with the hem of his shirt as she tried to find the words. "I, uh, I'm ready to not be scared anymore, if you're cool with that."

Toby could only gaze at her as her words settled in; the raw, unadulterated adoration and love burning in his eyes was so strong that a small, shy smile danced across her lips as she leaned in to kiss him-

And they were interrupted by Toby's obnoxious ring tone.

"Are you _kidding_ me?" He muttered, answering the call only because it was from the garage. "I'm. Not. Late. Okay? It's not even eight yet so don't be such an over-controlling megalomaniac- oh. Oh okay. Uhh, I... don't know?" He glanced at Happy and winced at how high his voice pitched. "Yes, I'm okay. Yeah, I'll try. Okay, see you."

"The world needs to be saved again?" Happy asked, disappointment coloring her tone.

Toby nodded, equally frustrated. "Someone got into a secure government server blah blah blah. Also they wanted to know where you were."

Happy fished her phone out of her bag, only for it to not turn on. "Must have died," she shrugged before turning back to him. "How soon do we have to go in?"

"Now, please, Toby." He imitated Walter's annoyed, 'professional' voice so well that Happy burst out laughing.

"Don't let him hear you talk like that, he'll kill you." She paused for a beat, and the smirk that adorned her face was a little unfair. "And I don't want to lose my boyfriend just minutes after we've gotten together."

"Wha-what?"

Her smirk only intensified as she kissed him, deepening it but then scooting back out of his reach just before he could pull her in closer; grabbing her bag and walking toward the door like nothing happened. "C'mon numbnuts, the world needs saving."

* * *

 _Yay that was fun to write haha hope you guys like it too! Comments really make my day, if you could spare a little time (:_

 _Again, so sorry about Valhalla and I'll get it out as soon as my laptop is back from repairs!_

 _Much love!_


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